


Evaporate

by Daringdoublebassist



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Spoilers, Bruce & Hulk Interaction, Gen, Grief/Mourning, James "Rhodey" Rhodes Feels, Marvel Universe, Okoye Needs a Hug, Protective Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Thanos Feels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-05-13
Packaged: 2019-05-04 22:29:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14603079
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daringdoublebassist/pseuds/Daringdoublebassist
Summary: AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR SPOILERS!Endings are complicated. Not everything resolves how you would expect it to: it can be messy, bewildering, painful. Thanos thought himself to be immune to selfish emotions. By now, it was all about The Greater Good.[A compilation of one-shots set in the moments immediately after Infinity War's final scene.]





	1. EVAPORATE

Endings are complicated. Not everything resolves how you would expect it to: it can be messy, bewildering, painful.

Thanos certainly hadn’t factored in the grief he would feel for his child. That stone wasn’t impossible to obtain, and he was ready to give up her life for this cause, but he thought himself to be immune to selfish emotions. By now, it was all about The Greater Good.

Except for his inability to clear his throat.

It started with a vocal gruffness. And then, this morphed into dampness – his eyes leaked grief. An icy storm waged war inside his chest, and constricted every new breath he tried to take.

Words came and went. Voices from the back of his mind. Memories.

He felt a bereft.

Longing.

_Anguish._

Again, he considered his child’s life. Her existence was dispensable: had he not saved her, she would have died long ago. It was now her turn to repay him, but he didn’t understand why he felt so upset.

This end should have felt like a new beginning. It should have been different. ~~~~


	2. VAPORATE

“Vague.”

Though she appreciated Thor couldn’t explain the rationale of a mad-man, she had hoped for more understanding of his thought processes.

“I’m sorry Natasha, I know it’s not a lot to go on.”

She didn’t know whether to be alarmed or confused looking into one blue eye that she recognised as her teammate’s and another – a brown eye – that most definitely did not belong to him. As team-oddities went, it definitely up there with the top three: (1) Clint’s mind being hijacked by a wizard from outer space; (2) The Winter Soldier turning out to be Steve’s long-lost BFF.

As scandalous as this new occurrence was, it didn’t begin to compare with her friends and colleagues being wiped out by a wrinkly-chinned purple alien with a magpie’s eye.

Maria and Clint’s phones had rejected her calls.

Laura had answered, appalled and distraught that little Lila had faded from her arms.

_Sickening._

Lila!

She couldn’t go on without her loved ones.

If magic had taken them away, she would learn magic to get them back.

“If vague is all we have…”


	3. APORATE

Again, Tony experienced the nightmare he once thought to be reality. This time it was real, but it felt less possible than his first viewing.

His fingers slipped over Peter’s crumbling shoulders. The kid flaked into soft nothingness in his grip. Tony couldn’t hold on. Peter couldn’t hold on.

And that was it.

He sat alone in the space dust, willing fate to take him too. Instinctively, he knew it never would.

He experienced lethargy. FRIDAY reactivated, but could neither confirm nor deny Pepper’s continued existence.

Tony was briefly helpless to the grief and loneliness. He was alone – but for the blue machine woman, who did not appear in positive spirits.

It had happened again, as he hoped it would not. But at least he had had some time to prepare. The blue woman had no such experience.

But this preparation time had given him one thing: Anti-Gravity Blaster Packs – he would be on his way back to Earth as soon as he could figure out a direction. Thanos would be next on the universe’s hit list.


	4. PORATE

Perhaps it was Hulk who saved them. Bruce had never before succeeded in attempts to end his life. Nor did Hulk let the aliens in Manhattan or on Sakaar destroy him. The frenemies had always shot down any plans before they came to fruition.

Perhaps it wasn’t Hulk’s power, but just having two beings in one body that did so?

Maybe then, should it be considered that at least one of them was dead?

If so, whom?

The linear thought processes probably meant it was Bruce who had awareness currently. A body check saw pink fingers and forearms coming into view. Definitely Bruce. But was that Mr Green skulking at the edge of his awareness? Yes? 

So, both of them were present. Interesting.

“Bruce? Are you there, buddy?”

Rhodey’s yells had changed track, and his voice was on its way towards him. Thinking he should try look respectable, Bruce wobbled upright.

“Oh, you’re still here!” Rhodey’s big hands squeezed to his upper arms, and his smile was bright but tense. “We thought he’d taken you too!”

Bruce shook his head, grinning. “No, not me!” He considered Rhodey’s careful smile. “What do you mean ‘too’?”


	5. ORATE

One lifetime ago, Steve Rogers had died.

He had come to terms with the prospect of his death.

It would happen; it would be for the best.

But then he lived.

And _lived._

And suddenly, in an action that took his friends and team, the man who had already survived one lifetime was spared death again.

It wasn’t fair!

Natasha was with him: his rock. Steadfast in her belief that there was something they could do, she fought tears and liberally gave hugs. She advised him she should be dead, but Steve was insurmountably grateful she hadn’t been taken.

For Thanos was as unselective as Death.

Bucky had had three half-lives: the first was cut short prematurely, the second lasted too long, and the third had ended before it even began. He was gone.

Sam was young, and fit, and happy. He diffused a joy and warmth of which Steve could only dream. He should have been safe.

And Wanda.

Vision.

Tony?

Once upon a time, Steve had been resurrected. Now, he was hoping for a miracle.


	6. RATE

Right before the battle, M’Baku had prepared his warriors. Cloaked in traditional brown and white dress, they drew long shields and raised muscled arms. They stomped and roared, chanting. The Jabari were fierce; pumped on their war songs, which were each as powerful as the next. They should be unstoppable; they should be victorious! 

Or so he had thought: the enemy had detonated an invisible, but highly effective weapon. How many people would be dead? 

Dead.

He assumed it was Death to which he lost his men. 

Could he be sure?

Perhaps these victims were merely biding their times, their souls stationed on another plain. 

He hoped that it would be so, for the tribe may never recover from this loss of its healthy young men. His friends, his officers, his own brothers. Taken. 

How would they go on?


	7. ATE

An unexpectant silence told Clint Barton that something wasn’t right. He knew this area backwards, and religiously catalogued each noise, and scent, and vibe this safe house presented him with. 

Where before a neighbour had been mowing her lawn, there was silence. The rotor-blades had shut off, but he didn’t hear the machine being rolled back into her shed; he didn’t hear the clack of her heeled boots up the stone steps. 

The quietness stretched as he adjusted his hearing aid. Birds still sang in the trees, the sprinkler rattling against greenhouse windows still spurted. But his neighbour was no longer moving around the garden. 

He took a look out onto her empty lawn.

Empty? 

She was far too heavy-footed to be able to employ the stealth needed to get away without him noticing. 

How strange.

There, the mower sat still rumbling to itself. She hadn’t even turned the power off!


	8. TE

“They’re gone. They’re all gone.”

Five words. Five very simple words. But that many hours on, she still couldn’t compute the enormity of Thor’s statement.

It was the hilarity wrestling with horror.

Shivers ran over her shoulders and down her spine. She felt useless, helpless.

Loved ones had vanished: she couldn’t find her husband, couldn’t contact the princess, and her limbs felt leaden. Barely able to pick herself up to go out searching, she knew in her heart that there would be pain whichever way she went.

They had been erased.

Her King had combusted before her eyes.

_Evaporated._

And her army had been halved in mere seconds.

And none of it was fair. Nothing about these deaths was honourable.

It could have been so different: but anyone on whom she could have laid blame had now disappeared. In other situations, she would have suggested apprehending those warriors for desertion.


	9. E

Existence – and the matter of – had always baffled Thor. He existed as a God, which was the primary reason for number of years he had lived. He could survive illness and injury. He could survive wars.

Human life to him seemed so fleeting.

He seemed to have grown weary to the death around him, for when he saw particles of humans floating into the atmosphere, he breathed only a single sigh of despair. Steve, in comparison, crumbled; a red-swathed warrior screamed out her grief; Colonel Rhodes’ cheery smile faded into dread.

He huffed against these boisterous emotions, but without purpose, recalled his brother’s fate. Heimdall’s face was next to enter his head. He wondered of Sif. Of Jane. Valkyrie.

When it seemed like the grief-stricken silence could last no longer, Natasha set about making plans. She telephoned friends, relatives, colleagues. She busied herself counting those who had been left living. And one by one, they managed to join in.

But they were zombies.

Thor found himself distracted.

He had existed as a God alongside members of his race. Most were dead. How many more would be destroyed by Thanos?

Perhaps all life was fleeting, not just that of humans.


	10. -

The universe wasn’t known for being self-aware.

Thanos thought he was the greatest power inside it’s wide boundaries.

 

**He was wrong.**


End file.
